Compete-tee-tion

Shirt.Woot has announced the theme for this week’s Derby: Travel. They’re looking for shirt designs that visually express the concept of travel, duh. Things to avoid: time travel, maps, and any other major visual elements that have been past Derby themes (for a complete list of Derby themes, look here).

Submissions will be accepted into the contest beginning at noon on Friday. As voting is continuous, early entries often have an advantage. Submissions are over at noon on Wednesday, and voting ends on Thursday at noon. The top three entries, as voted upon by Woot members, will be printed the following weekend. Each printed artist will receive up to $500 for the first day of sales and $2 per shirt sold after the first day. If you’re wondering what types of designs do well in the Derby, check out this week’s top four entries.

If themes aren’t your thing, consider submitting directly to Woot. You’ll get paid the same as a Derby artist, but you’ll have the advantage of avoiding all the voting madness.

Part of the fun of the Derby is interacting with the Woot community. In addition to the Derby forum, Woot members also populate Derby supporting sites like Best Losers and ShirtDerbyStats.

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This week, I’m going to post the contest blurb from Shirt.Woot in its entirety. This is not exclusively due to laziness (although of course that is always a factor), but the theme is a wee bit complicated and I want to be sure that I’m not misrepresenting things.

Technically, we’re all consumers, since we all eat and most of us wear clothes. But consumerism is something more than acquiring basic needs – it’s the creation of new “needs”, the search for personal identity in mass-market products, the perception of value in labels and brands. Is consumerism just an extension of the way people have been buying and selling since the dawn of time, or a modern contrivance whose power is not to be trusted? As you can imagine, we know a thing or two about selling people stuff they don’t strictly need. Now we want to see (and wear) your graphic commentary on the idea of consumerism.

And since you children keep abusing your toys, we’re taking them away: no pirates, zombies, ninjas, monkeys, apes, squids, or robots this week. This contest is not about who can come up with the sneakiest way to shoehorn one of those memes into the weekly theme. So we’re putting them up in the cupboard where you can’t reach them. You can have them back later, if you can be good. Attempts to get cute with the terms above (“but this a corsair, not a pirate!”) will count as “not being good”.

I’m liking the restrictions this week, I hope it will lead to a rush of creativity in the entries. Should be a fun week…

Entries can be submitted starting Friday at noon and continuing until Wednesday at noon. Remember, though, that voting is on-going- this means that early entries often have more favorable odds for winning. The top three designs, as voted on by Woot members, will be printed next weekend. Each winner will earn up to $500 for the first night of sales, and an additional $2 per shirt for sales made after the first day. If this theme isn’t your thing, consider submitting your work directly to Woot. If selected, you’ll be paid in the same manner as Derby winners.

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I forgot to mention the Shirt.Woot Derby when it opened to submissions this Friday (blame the release of Call of Duty 4, it ate most of my week). The theme is Information Graphics, and it has caused a lot of confusion and plagiarized concepts so far this week… as well as the occasional gem.

As always, the top three designs (as voted for by the Woot community) will be printed next weekend, with the printed designers earning up to $500 plus $2 for every shirt sold after the first day of sales.

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Shirt.Woot has announced the newest Derby theme: Time Travel Souvenirs. There are a few restrictions this time as well: 1) No designs may use the phrase “all I got was this lousy t-shirt” or anything similar, and 2) Stay far, far away from copyrighted imagery and concepts. Other than that, all of time is at your command- designs dealing with both the past and the future are encouraged.

As always, submissions and voting will open at noon on Friday. There is a definite advantage to submitting early, so keep that in mind. The top three entries will be printed next weekend, and each winner will receive up to $500 for the first night of sales plus $2 per shirt sold after the first day. If this theme isn’t to your liking and you can set up a print-ready design file, submit a design of any theme directly to Woot (pay is the same as for Derby winners).

Supplement the Derby fun with websites that support the Derby community: check Best Losers for news about non-winning shirts, or check ShirtDerbyStats and ShirtStats for the most up-to-date statistics on all the entries (including fogged designs).

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The theme for this week’s Shirt.Woot Derby has been posted: Nutrition. There are a few restrictions this time, as Woot is specifically outlawing shirt designs that refer to beer, drugs or porn. Good call, Woot.

You can enter any time after Friday at noon, though early entries have a decided advantage in the voting process. The top three entries will be printed next weekend, and each winner will receive up to $500 for the first night of sales plus $2 per shirt sold after the first day. If this theme isn’t to your liking and you can set up a print-ready design file, you can bypass the Derby by submitting a design of any theme directly to Woot (you’ll get paid the same as Derby winners do).

The Derby fun never ends, thanks to Woot members who have set up websites for the Derby community. Best Losers is the place to go for interviews with winners, honorable mention awards, and links on where to buy past Derby designs directly from the artists. Meanwhile, dueling statistic sites ShirtDerbyStats (which features individual design comment forums) and Shirtstats (with personal stat tracking) provide up to date information on how all the entries are being scored.

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Yes, I just posted about Shirt.Woot two entries ago. But there’s a new community site for Shirt.Woot users that I think merits an immediate mention. Woot user JCBarry has set up a site to track Derby statistics, Shirtstats.com.

This site’s benefits include personal logins and entry tracking, plus a really intuitive (and fast loading!) site design. It also benefits the community by hosting files such as t-shirt templates. More features, such as visitor polls, are planned for the future.

This is the second Derby tracker for the Derby, as Woot member cwarrington has a Derby tracker that has been in use for a few Derbies now. His tracker includes such benefits as entry comments, badges, and stored voting statistics from the last several Derbies.

If this isn’t enough Derby-related fun for you, then head on over to thatrobert’s site, Best Losers, where he takes a look at entries that didn’t win and interviews some of the Derby’s top artists.

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Shirt.Woot has announced the theme for this week’s derby and, to the surprise of no one, that theme is Halloween. Start working on your shirt ideas now, because submissions can be entered starting tomorrow at noon (and early shirts have more opportunities to get votes).

Shirt.Woot pays out $250 for any shirt they run that sells 500 copies or less. If you sell more than that, you’ll get $500. And no matter which category your shirt is in, you will get $2 per shirt sold after the first day of sales. The top three voted shirts will be printed next weekend.

And remember, experienced artists and designers can submit shirts of any theme directly to Woot (they receive the same compensation as derby winners).

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